SHACKLES, BELT, PADDLE FOUND IN HOME WHERE FOSTER CHILD DIED

It took the bruised and scarred corpse of 11-year-old Tameka Lehmann, and a search warrant that opened the door to an apparent chamber of horrors in rural North Carolina, for authorities to conclude that Ann and Sylvester Phillips weren`t the loving foster couple they appeared to be.

Not in Bladen County, where the couple had lived for three months, nor in south suburban Blue Island, where they had been state-licensed foster parents since 1975, was the apparent nightmare of five children known to anyone. Living with the Phillipses were their grandson, age 2 1/2; the couple`s two adopted children, ages 11 and 13; and the couple`s two Illinois foster children, Tameka and her 10-year-old brother, for whose care the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) paid them $518 a month.

Although threads of evidence appear to have come close to the surface in North Carolina and Illinois, no one wove them together until 3:17 a.m. June 15, when Tameka was pronounced dead on arrival at Bladen County Hospital.

The Phillipses have been charged with one count each of first-degree murder in Tameka`s death and two counts each of felony child abuse for a litany of alleged abuse against Tameka and the 13-year-old adopted son.

Authorities said the three other children in the couple`s care were ordered to participate in the abuse but were not subjected to the same punishment as Tameka and the 13-year-old boy.

The charges raise unsettling questions: Could this cruelty have emerged as suddenly as child welfare authorities in both states contend, and if not, how could it have crept into the children`s lives undetected? Or did the alleged abuse go undetected in Blue Island during the 12 years that the DCFS placed 11 children in the couple`s care?

Armed with a search warrant the morning after Tameka`s death, a team of North Carolina investigators stepped into the Phillipses` four-bedroom brick ranch home here and began working backwards to answer the question. Inside, they found an almost surreal scene.

A padlock and 6-foot chain were screwed into the wall above a 13-year-old boy`s bed. An empty shaker that had contained dried flakes of red-hot pepper sat next to the bathtub, its contents allegedly having been forcefed to a disobedient Tameka.

On both sides of the master bedroom door, shackles and chains were nailed, allegedly to hang Tameka and the Phillipses` 13-year-old son while the three other children were forced to whip them with a leather belt. And in a brick barbecue pit out back, a 3-foot oaken paddle used for spankings rested on a grill.

The evidence was recovered last week by Bladen County sheriff`s detectives and state investigators building a case against Phillips, 56, and his wife, 64, both of whom are being held without bond in the Bladen County jail.

''This is the worst case of child abuse I have ever seen or read about,'' said Bladen County sheriff`s Detective Stephen W. Bunn, who has investigated such cases in North Carolina for seven years. ''The different things they forced the kids to do, to succumb to . . . it took some imagination to dream up some of it--a gruesome imagination.''

In early April, Ann Phillips and the five children moved to the house, owned by Bishop J.H. Barbour, head of the Born Again Church of Jesus Christ Apostolic Inc., the religious group the Phillipses belong to and that operates a small commune-like farm near their house. Sylvester Phillips, a Chicago laborer, had moved to the house about two years earlier after settling a disability claim.

Despite the family`s apparent close ties to the church, North Carolina officials said they don`t suspect that Barbour or anyone from the church played a role in Tameka`s death or the alleged abuse in the Phillipses` home. ''This couple is just crazy mean,'' Bunn said of the Phillipses. ''They just happened to be going to this church.''

With the Phillipses in jail, three of the four surviving children who lived with them are in protective custody in North Carolina. The fourth, Tameka`s 10-year-old brother, has been returned to Illinois and has told DCFS social workers of a pattern of abuse in the Phillipses` home, beginning when the family lived in Blue Island.

The abuse began in January, the boy told DCFS. That was when he and Tameka were placed in the home by Lutheran Social Services of Illinois, a nonprofit private agency that places children for DCFS and screens potential foster parents for the state. The Phillipses intended to adopt Tameka and her brother, DCFS officials said.

In early May, Tameka`s brother told the agency, the Phillipses began forcing Tameka and their 13-year-old adopted son to have sex while the Phillipses looked on. The couple then punished the children for obeying their orders, according to Tameka`s brother.

The punishment allegedly included chaining the 13-year-old to his bed, or hanging Tameka and the boy by their arms and legs with chains bolted into each side of the Phillipses` bedroom door.

When the children moved to North Carolina, Tameka`s brother told the agency, the Phillipses began severely beating their son and forcing him to eat spoonfuls of red-hot pepper flakes. After he ate the pepper, the Phillipses then allegedly refused to let him drink anything for hours. The 13-year-old, who also has been interviewed, told investigators that the punishment made his throat ''sting like crazy.''

June 14, the day before Tameka was pronounced dead, Ann Phillips began beating Tameka after accusing the girl of stealing a piece of jewelry, Tameka`s brother told investigators. The Phillipses also started beating their 13-year-old son when he intervened in the argument on Tameka`s side, Tameka`s brother and other children have told authorities.

Tameka and the 13-year-old were tied up part of that Sunday, according to the other children, and Tameka was forced to eat soap and drink a pitcher of flavored water.

Tameka began drifting in and out of consciousness, and Mrs. Phillips tried to revive her with ammonia, the children told investigators. After dark, the Phillipses allegedly put Tameka on the back porch, where they found her unconscious hours later.

After the Phillipses found Tameka, they tried to revive her in a bathtub of scalding water and ammonia, the other children have said. The children said the Phillipses told them under threat of punishment not to tell anyone what had happened to Tameka.

About three hours later, Tameka had more than 50 cuts and bruises covering her body and an infected, ulcerated sore on hers buttocks.

The alleged abuse apprently was shielded from the outside world, authorities in North Carolina and Illinois said.

''That`s the part that hurts so. They just never gave us a clue,'' said Verdelle McMillan, principal at Plain View School in nearby Tar Heel, N.C., where Tameka was in the 6th grade.

McMillan said of Tameka, ''She never had any bruises in school. She seemed to have a perfect attitude towards her parents.''

The Phillipses` 13-year-old son also showed no signs of abuse at the North Carolina high school he attended, officials there said.

When the Phillipses lived in Illinois, DCFS spokesman David Schneidman said, repeated interviews with the couple and inspections of their home indicated that they were model foster parents.

DCFS has been attempting to contact the Phillipses` previous foster children since last week, he said. ''I`m not sure workers from Lutheran Social Services and us have made contact with them all so far, but certainly we`ve heard nothing to indicate that they suffered any abuse at the hands of these people,'' Schneidman said.

North Carolina authorities have raised questions about whether the Phillipses kept a suitable home for the children there. Bladen County sheriff`s police were surprised to find the couple`s home so dirty.

''The place was filthy as a hog,'' said Sheriff Earl Storms. Police found no rotten food or vermin, Storms said, but floors appeared not to have been washed in months, which seemed unusual for a home in which five children were being raised.

Similarly, the family that bought the Phillipses` former Blue Island home three months ago said they were shocked by how dirty it was. The couple said the home was in better condition last summer when they toured it. They said they had to spend three weeks cleaning the home before they could move in.

Illinois and North Carolina child welfare officials said they inspected both homes and found them acceptable for the children.

Officials of Lutheran Social Services visited at least four times with the Phillipses in their home between August and April and found the house acceptably clean, said Donald Hallberg, the agency`s president.

''Our visits indicated that they were meeting the licensing standards,''

Hallberg said. The inspections, along with the Phillipses` history as successful foster parents, made the couple ''look like a winner,'' he said.

An official of the Bladen County Department of Social Services, which sent workers June 10 to visit the Phillipses in their new home, said of the home, ''Everything was in place. There was absolutely no reason to suspect anything was wrong.''